Honor Magic V’s successor goes global.
Samsung’s Z-series may be the first foldables that come to mind, but it’s not the only one. Motorola, Oppo, Huawei, and others have designed folding phones, with more coming. Many of these products have been China-only, but Honor is changing that.
Today, the company announced European availability for the Honor 70, an affordable Android tablet, and a thin-and-light Windows laptop. Honor stated in an interview with The Verge that the Magic V’s successor will launch in Q1 2023.
US rules force Huawei to stay in China because its phones lack Play Store access to sell in Europe. Companies not facing sanctions also retain foldables in China. Oppo’s Find N is a better foldable than Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold, but it’s not available yet. Even Motorola, which will launch two worldwide variants of the Moto Razr in 2020, hasn’t disclosed international availability for its third-gen device.
Honor will introduce a new foldable smartphone alongside MagicOS 7.0 in three months. Honor’s new foldable smartphone includes a Snapdragon 8+ engine, a 5000mAh dual-core battery, and enhanced hinge technology. This phone will supposedly be lighter and thinner.
Honor continues to develop aggressively, according to George Zhao. Honor is boosting R&D spending in China and beyond. When Honor became independent, its employment was near to 8,000, but today its R&D staff is close to 8,000, accounting for more than 60% of the company.
Zhao said Honor’s R&D portion of revenue is the largest among Chinese phone makers and 1.5 to 2 times more than those already on the market, if not more.